
Not lengthy after Anderson Cooper began internet hosting CNN’s New Yr’s Eve protection from Occasions Sq. in 2002, the information program usually turned the information.
Over the past 20 years, Cooper has been joined by a number of of his colleagues and celebrities throughout New Yr’s Eve Reside broadcast, which has gotten more and more longer over time. In 2007, Kathy Griffin joined because the journalist’s official cohost. Whereas the unlikely duo introduced the laughs, Griffin made waves yearly for her soiled jokes and cursing. Nonetheless, the community stood by her — till Could 2017 when the My Life on the D-Checklist alum got here underneath fireplace for posing with a faux severed head of then-President Donald Trump.
After Cooper tweeted that he was “appalled by the picture shoot,” calling it “clearly disgusting and utterly inappropriate,” the community lower ties with Griffin.
The Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty creator’s finest good friend Andy Cohen subsequently took over Griffin’s gig.
Cooper and Cohen continued to maintain the protection mild, with the Watch What Occurs Reside With Andy Cohen host encouraging his pal to take a shot each hour.
“We prefer to assume that we’re the one TV hosts on New Yr’s Eve who’re really having enjoyable,” Cooper stated on The Late Present With Stephen Colbert in December 2022. “I began masking New Yr’s Eve, like, 17 years in the past for CNN. … That they had nobody else to do it so I volunteered to do it … as a result of I’ve at all times hated New Yr’s Eve.”
Colbert contemplated why the community created content material that evening in any respect. “On the off likelihood that point didn’t cross that evening? As a result of that will be the one information — if it didn’t develop into January 1 at midnight,” he quipped.
“I really like New Yr’s Eve,” Cohen added on the time. “I really like an overhyped occasion. And masking New Yr’s Eve is — I say this yearly — it is sort of a telethon with no illness. We’re standing there simply marking the passing of time. … It’s an odd factor.”
Colbert subsequently confirmed an image of Cohen going off in the course of the 2021-22 broadcast — the 12 months the “overserved” Bravo host made headlines for shading Mayor Invoice de Blasio and Ryan Seacrest.
“That was one among my rants. I had issues to say!” Cohen recalled, noting that he wasn’t impressed with the band Journey performing with out Steve Perry on ABC. “They sprayed me with their stuff, [I was] coated with their glitter and so it simply rubbed me the fallacious manner. … I used to be calling it faux Journey and, you understand, Neal Schon went after me for a couple of 12 months on Twitter. And I felt terribly after however I’m a Steve Perry fan.”
Cooper then joked: “That’s the face of somebody simply watching my previous good friend dig his grave.”
Scroll by means of for the most-talked-about moments from the published over time:

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Most Controversial Moments From CNN’s ‘New Yr’s Eve Reside’: Kathy Griffin’s Cursing, Don Lemon’s Antics and Andy Cohen’s Disses
Not lengthy after Anderson Cooper began internet hosting CNN’s New Yr’s Eve protection from Occasions Sq. in 2002, the information program usually turned the information.
Over the past 20 years, Cooper has been joined by a number of of his colleagues and celebrities throughout New Yr’s Eve Reside broadcast, which has gotten more and more longer over time. In 2007, Kathy Griffin joined because the journalist’s official cohost. Whereas the unlikely duo introduced the laughs, Griffin made waves yearly for her soiled jokes and cursing. Nonetheless, the community stood by her — till Could 2017 when the My Life on the D-Checklist alum got here underneath fireplace for posing with a faux severed head of then-President Donald Trump.
After Cooper tweeted that he was “appalled by the picture shoot,” calling it “clearly disgusting and utterly inappropriate,” the community lower ties with Griffin.
The Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty creator’s finest good friend Andy Cohen subsequently took over Griffin’s gig.
Cooper and Cohen continued to maintain the protection mild, with the Watch What Occurs Reside With Andy Cohen host encouraging his pal to take a shot each hour.
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“We prefer to assume that we’re the one TV hosts on New Yr’s Eve who’re really having enjoyable,” Cooper stated on The Late Present With Stephen Colbert in December 2022. “I began masking New Yr’s Eve, like, 17 years in the past for CNN. … That they had nobody else to do it so I volunteered to do it … as a result of I’ve at all times hated New Yr’s Eve.”
Colbert contemplated why the community created content material that evening in any respect. “On the off likelihood that point didn’t cross that evening? As a result of that will be the one information — if it didn’t develop into January 1 at midnight,” he quipped.
“I really like New Yr’s Eve,” Cohen added on the time. “I really like an overhyped occasion. And masking New Yr’s Eve is — I say this yearly — it is sort of a telethon with no illness. We’re standing there simply marking the passing of time. … It’s an odd factor.”
Colbert subsequently confirmed an image of Cohen going off in the course of the 2021-22 broadcast — the 12 months the “overserved” Bravo host made headlines for shading Mayor Invoice de Blasio and Ryan Seacrest.
“That was one among my rants. I had issues to say!” Cohen recalled, noting that he wasn’t impressed with the band Journey performing with out Steve Perry on ABC. “They sprayed me with their stuff, [I was] coated with their glitter and so it simply rubbed me the fallacious manner. … I used to be calling it faux Journey and, you understand, Neal Schon went after me for a couple of 12 months on Twitter. And I felt terribly after however I’m a Steve Perry fan.”
Cooper then joked: “That’s the face of somebody simply watching my previous good friend dig his grave.”
Scroll by means of for the most-talked-about moments from the published over time:

Credit score: Adam Nemser/Startraks
Kathy Griffin’s Soiled Mouth
Throughout her tenure, the comic made wives for cursing a number of occasions. In December 2008, she informed a heckler, “I do not go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth.” The next 12 months, she stated the F-bomb, joked about threesomes and requested Cooper why he doesn’t “stare within the mirror all day and pleasure your self since you’re so beautiful.”

Credit score: Roger Wong/INFphoto/INSTAR
Kathy Griffin Strips Down and Kisses Anderson Cooper
After kissing a crew member in the course of the 2010-11 present, Griffin planted one on Cooper the subsequent 12 months. The 2011-12 broadcast additionally featured her stripping all the way down to only a bra.

Credit score: CNN
Don Lemon Drunkenly Will get His Ears Pierced
Cohen isn’t the one one who has been tipsy on air. After a number of pictures, Don Lemon ended 2016 by getting his ears pierced on air. Throughout the identical broadcast, the community seemingly lower his mic after he declared “2016 was terrible.”

Credit score: AP/Shutterstock
Kathy Griffin Is Fired
CNN introduced in Could 2017 that the community had “terminated our settlement with Kathy Griffin to look on our New Yr’s Eve program” amid the fallout from her graphic Trump picture shoot.

Credit score: Courtesy of Andy Cohen/Instagram
Andy Cohen vs. The Occasions Sq. Alliance
Cohen’s first goal on NYE was The Occasions Sq. Alliance. In the course of the 2018-19 present, the Actual Housewives producer claimed he and Anderson have been being singled out after being requested to place down their umbrellas on the wet vacation. Cohen ranted on air and alleged that the Alliance threatened to tug CNN’s credentials regardless of different networks utilizing umbrellas.
The Occasions Sq. Alliance fired again in a press release on the time: “It has been our coverage that umbrellas are usually not permitted on the media riser in order to not intrude with media colleagues’ sightlines. There have been over 100 credentialed members of the media and 15 stay broadcast digicam spots on the media riser this 12 months. We don’t monitor this difficulty on different phases which might be stand-alone with no different networks current, thus no potential for different digicam pictures to be blocked. Some tempers flared, nevertheless it was by no means the case, nor will it’s the case, that CNN can be denied credentials or the power to cowl New Yr’s Eve.”

Credit score: Shutterstock (2)
Andy Cohen Shades de Blasio — 2 Years in a Row
Cohen has been triggered by the (former) NYC mayor on a number of events.
“I simply needn’t see that to start with of 2021,” he stated after watching de Blasio and spouse Chirlane McCray dance in Occasions Sq. in the course of the 2020-21 present. “Do one thing with this metropolis! Truthfully, get it collectively!”
The following 12 months, he declared that de Blasio wouldn’t be reelected.
“Watching Mayor de Blasio do his victory lap dance after 4 years of the crappiest time period because the mayor of New York — the one factor that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is what a horrible mayor he has been,” Cohen stated. “So sayonara sucka. 2022! It’s a brand new 12 months as a result of guess what? I’ve a sense I’m gonna be standing proper right here subsequent 12 months, and you understand who I’m not going to be dancing as town comes aside? You!”

Credit score: Shutterstock (2)
Andy Cohen Disses Ryan Seacrest
“For those who look behind me, you’ll see Ryan Seacrest’s group of losers performing. … I’m sorry however for those who’re watching ABC, you’re watching nothing,” Cohen quipped in the course of the 2021-22 broadcast. “We have been doused with confetti from faux Journey on ABC. If it’s not Steve Perry, it doesn’t depend! You get it? It’s not Journey! It’s propaganda! It’s propaganda! It’s not Journey! It’s not Journey! No, that was not Journey. Steve Perry is Journey.”
That very same 12 months, Lemon joked about “broke dick” with comic Dulcé Sloan and informed haters: “You’ll be able to kiss my behind, I don’t care.”

Credit score: Andrew Walker/Shutterstock; INSTAR
Banning Consuming Studies
Following Cohen and Lemon’s drunken antics on the 2021-22 present, Selection reported that the community wished to sober up the present. The Most Talkative creator fired again on the claims on WWHL, saying that he and Cooper have been going to “celebration tougher” for the 2022-23 broadcast. He additionally addressed the scenario throughout an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“What [CNN CEO Chris Licht] stated was that he didn’t need the correspondents on the market consuming, however that he wished Anderson and I to do our factor,” he stated in November 2022. “So I’m pleased to do our factor. My solely directive for years on CNN has been to have enjoyable on New Yr’s Eve, and that’s completely what I plan to do.”